


two of us on the run

by bluesgraywaren



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Imbalance (Avatar Graphic Novels)
Genre: F/F, Slow Burn, just a good ol character redemption, these bitches gay my god good for them, tophling rights!!!!!!!, wow........ wow wow wow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25681717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesgraywaren/pseuds/bluesgraywaren
Summary: “toph?” comes an uneasy voice, footsteps amplified by the grass.“i know who you are,” toph says, planting her feet solidly on the ground. “cranefish town might’ve been a year ago, but a rematch can still be on the books, yaling.”“no, no!” yaling calls out, but toph doesn’t lose her stance. “i’m not here for a rematch. really.”toph narrows her eyes; either yaling’s telling the truth, or she’s gotten better at lying. like, better than Azula at lying, because there’s no quake in her voice, no sped-up thrum of her heartbeat.or,a year after the incident at cranefish town, yaling wants to make amends. morally, to her family and friends, and especially to toph. slow burn, multi chapter fic.
Relationships: Toph Beifong/Yaling
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	two of us on the run

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is titled after lucius's song "two of us on the run", because it's a TOPHLING SONG I DECLARED IT.

**Toph’s academy is _thriving_.**

And, yeah, she wouldn’t expect anything less of a whole new subset of metalbending being invented, but it’s truly rising in popularity; she has weekly meetings with Earthbending leaders where she tries to teach them exactly how to do it (turns out adults respond less to insults than she’d expect), and she’s got members from low and high society in her back pocket when it comes to making the world a better place. A better metalbending place.

Her few students have multiplied to easily over twenty, and they’re honestly picking up metalbending quicker than she’d assume, for a bunch of lily-livers. She helps with daily lessons, even letting some of her more promising students lead exercises, and life is genuinely good. She’s on good terms with her father, who sends weekly letters that one of her students reads aloud about the Earthen Fire Industries.

Toph’s noticed that metalbending gets infinitesimally harder when it gets colder, but she (and her students) persevere well. She’s working on a new machine to donate to a town a few miles over to help with clothing manufacturing when she hears it.

Footsteps. _Familiar_ footsteps at that, and that’s almost never a good sign. She’s by herself on the front lawn of the academy, balancing some meteorite from palm to palm, and she’s about to launch a glove of it when-

“Toph?” comes an uneasy voice, footsteps amplified by the grass.

“I know who you are,” Toph says, planting her feet solidly on the ground. “Cranefish Town might’ve been a year ago, but a rematch can still be on the books, Yaling.”

“No, no!” Yaling calls out, but Toph doesn’t lose her stance. “I’m not here for a rematch. Really.”

Toph narrows her eyes; either Yaling’s telling the truth, or she’s gotten better at lying. Like, better than _Azula_ at lying, because there’s no quake in her voice, no sped-up thrum of her heartbeat.

Toph shakes both of her hands, the metal sliding off like jelly. Yaling comes closer, though Toph can feel the nervousness in, her pulse, the wringing of her hands.

Toph closes her eyes, feeling the ground for more vibrations. There’s no one coming, no slew of benders ready to come and tear her academy to the ground.

“Then what are you here for?” Toph calls out, eyebrows narrowing. “I don’t exactly run a bed-and-breakfast for people who’ve tried to kill me. Although if I did, you could probably bunk with Firelord Ozai.”

Yaling laughs, but it’s still more anxious than full of malice like it was in Cranefish Town. “That’d be interesting.”

“Seriously. What is it?”

Yaling sits a few feet away from Toph, molding the earth into a comfortable sitting position. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Please?”

Toph lets out a huff, plopping herself down. “This better be a great story.”

“It’s not…” Yaling breathes, and Toph feels her put her head in her hands. “I wanted to say… I’m sorry. For everything back in Cranefish.”

Toph’s eyes widen, but she still stays back.

“My mom got to me. For my whole life, I think. I thought that I was so superior and better than everyone, even my own _sister_. It was at the point where I knew I loved Ru, but I’d let her be out of a job and out of pretty much _everything_ in order to let benders have it. I was mom’s pride and joy, and she held Ru back. I followed suit.” Yaling says, eyes wavering. “I thought everyone felt the way I did. But when I saw what happened… When I ended up in that cage with her, when I tried to kill _you_ , when she almost buried Ru just to prove a stupid point, something clicked. She was wrong.”

Toph hums, feeling the blades of grass tickle her hands. Yaling’s still not lying.

“I know that it’s hard to go against your parents, believe me,” Toph says, curling her feet into her chest. “All they ever did was shelter me, and I could’ve fallen into it. Could’ve believed that I was a proper lady, I guess, and left Aang to fend for himself. It took everything to leave. And Zuko, I mean… You know how bad his family was. He could’ve burnt us to a crisp just like his dad would’ve wanted, but he turned everything around. I’d never tell him, but he’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”

Toph feels a tiny vibration hit the earth, and she turns, placing a palm onto the ground. Yaling’s crying, silently, and Toph doesn’t know why, but she reaches out a hand and presses it on her shoulder. Yaling looks up, wiping her eyes.

“I’m really, really sorry,” Yaling whispers. “I know I’ve been horrible to you in the past. And I know that whenever we talked it wasn’t _real_ for you like it was for me.”

Toph can feel it; something in Yaling’s heartbeat seizes, then stops. She can’t figure out what it is, but she knows it’s not a lie. A little spike of guilt flares up in her heart; and yeah, she was protecting a whole town in lying to Yaling, but it still didn’t feel great.

“I want to make it up to the world,” Yaling says, voice still a hair away from silence. “I want to make it up to my sister, and I want to make it up to _you._ I know that the Avatar is trying to restore balance, and I was standing in the way. I want to help, now. I want to learn metalbending, not so that I can hurt other people, but to help.”

Toph feels the ground for vibrations one last time. She can feel Yaling telling the truth, feel it in every wrenched word and tear that flows down her cheek.

Toph smiles, pulling her arm away from where it rested on Yaling’s shoulder and instead punching her only half as hard as she could.

“Ow!” Yaling cries, pulling away. “What the hell?”

“That’s my way of welcoming you to Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy,” Toph says, reaching down to help Yaling up. “I’ll teach you. For real this time.”

Yaling feels a swell of warmth flutter through her chest, and she bows her head. Toph grins back, tucking one of her strands of hair behind her ear and reaching back down for the meteorite. It flows up, swirling around her and Yaling’s heads before flowing back into the blob on the workbench.

“Well then, Sifu Toph,” Yaling says, cracking her knuckles. “I guess it’s back to that day at the beach, huh?’

Toph cackles, getting in her earthbending stance.

“You’re on.”


End file.
